VBOTD

BOS@TB
Under 8.5

This is a case of historically good matchups. In the past 3 years, Kazmir has been 5-2 with a 2.6 ERA against Boston. Wakefield has been just as impressive in that period of time, going 7-1 with a 3.04 ERA. Just less than a week ago, both these pitchers pitched against the same teams, with Wakefield pitching 8 innings of 2-hit ball while Kazmir held the Red Sox scoreless for 6 innings. Runs could be hard to come by in this one.

Running record: +1285
Record: 19-7

Of course for the game where I thought the line was wrong Harang had his worst outing of the season. It's quite amazing how good the linesmakers are. However, Milwaukee is in such a slump that they managed to blow the early 5 run lead and then the late 1 run lead. But even though I recommended two picks and they both won, there was certainly plenty of drama as yet again David Weathers was having some trouble with the save and Borowski managed to blow his save while also not allowing the winning run (which would've have ended in a win right there).

My record right now looks like the win-loss record of a Cy Young winner (at least of the last few seasons). But it's actually an interesting race in the national league now that Brandon Webb (13-8) is on his streak. He's not unhittable in the same way that Jake Peavy is unhittable, but batters just can't seem to make good contact against his pitches. He actually is tied for 2nd in the league in strikeouts (which is a feat for a sinkerball pitcher) but most of that is due to the fact that he has pitched a lot more innings than the other top 5 guys.

So why does it seem to me that the sinkerball doesn't get as much attention as it deserves? Think of some of the current pitchers with a great sinking fastball: Halladay, Webb, Wang, Lowe, etc. They are workhorses who deliver a lot of innings because their pitch counts remain low. If a guy like Derek Lowe got the run support of a team like the Yankees, he'd be a 17-7 type pitcher too. Seems to me that if I ran a team I'd be looking for a good sinkerballer to anchor my staff.

Lastly, here is an absolutely fantastic article from Covers about betting on umpires in baseball. Enjoy. http://www.covers.com/articles/articles.aspx?theArt=146895